Highlights

$amhillThe Preface

The minimalist style recently embraced by New York rappers/producers Roc Marciano and Ka yielded at least two of the best hip-hop albums of 2012 (namely Roc’s Reloaded and Ka’s Grief Pedigree, which I covered here). Another rapper/producer who’s put his own spin on this no-frills, back-to-basics approach is South Bronx-based rapper/producer $amhill, whose debut music video, “Poetic Justice,” directed by none other than Ralph McDaniels, premiered just over a year ago. Last week, The Almighty $amhill finally dropped his first solo release via Unkut.com. With seven songs and not a minute of wasted space, The Preface does exactly what an EP is supposed to, giving us just enough material to simultaneously satisfy our hunger for now while whetting our appetite for more.

“Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” (freestyle)

“I may be drunk on the couch, but I’m raising the bar.” Yikes. That type of line didn’t work well when Eminem did it in 2010, and hearing Rick Ross reprise it three years later hasn’t made it sound any better. But, oh well, the dude’s had a pretty hard time lately, what with allegedly almost dying and everything. Ross’ take on Kendrick Lamar’s “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” has the same chilled-out cadence of the original, but the lyrics are more intimate than we’ve heard recently from Mr. Maybach Music (speaking of Maybach: I love how the Maybach Music shout-out is thrown in to EVERY Rick Ross song, regardless of whether or not it fits: pretty sure I laughed at its seemingly last-place insertion in this track). Did you know that Rick Ross battled dyslexia? Me neither.

“she found now”

Twenty-two years since their classic Loveless and only two cover songs to tide fans over, My Bloody Valentine’s long-awaited third album m b v finally squeezed its way out of Kevin Shields’ perfectionist clutches last night. After breaking the internet with the lust of blitzing fans, the band’s newly inaugurated website is back up and selling m b v as a download, with CD and vinyl options. Hearing new My Bloody Valentine material is pretty shocking for someone who has been persistently betrayed by Shields’ promises, and it’s tempting to dismiss m b v and its artwork as a mere successor to Loveless, feeding off of its extended afterglow. But what at first seems to be a more straightforward follow-up, bereft of the loopy abstraction of the band’s most experimental wash, eventually delivers on the ecstatic bliss of peaking tracks such as “Soon” and “Swallow” with an ending so messed up that it evokes Royal Trux and To Live and Shave in L.A. at their most demented. Loveless was a grower, and m b v is already getting better with every listen.

Delve deep enough in the world of SoundCloud and you’re bound to discover some truly innovative musicians, artists who seem to either have low ambitions for their music or simply don’t care about getting widely distributed. This mentality can result in the wildest, risk-free experiments on and off the internet, and while not every artist on this mix approaches music this way (maybe none of them do), the majority have precisely this quality of uninhibited adventurousness that exaggerates or goes beyond the confines of the genres by which they were clearly influenced (grindcore, noise, hip-hop, new age, vaporwave, musique concrete, etc.). From the pseudo-collage approach of VHS Logos and Shortcake Collage Tape, to the mallfuck plundering of Hａｐｐｅｎｓ and 骨架的 (now known as 骷, FYI), to the 21st-century beats of 食品まつり a.k.a foodman and Rebuilder, to the unclassifiable warpings of 肉人形✰MEATDOLL and ICFC, to the solemn modernism of Dirty Beaches, and finally to the post-lolicore horrow show that is BillmaZter, this mix isn’t for the faint of heart.

Fetishization and obsession mix here with a 21-century technological future that’s stretched so aesthetically and ideologically thin that it’s already starting to vanish before even starting to materialize, where what’s lost in translation is not meaning, but coherence.

“The Wire, the Rag and the Payoff”

For Brokeback and the Black Rock, the first new Brokeback release in about 10 years, Douglas McCombs (of Tortoise fame) hired an entirely new squad to coalesce a more traditional rock configuration, where his penchant for dusty, Morricone-esque melodies could thrive. The style’s a far cry from the band’s earlier jazzy chamber-compositions of a decade ago, but some might argue that this is indeed the natural setting for McCombs’ pliable, whammy-bar tones. And “The Wire, the Rag and the Payoff” makes a strong case, especially as filtered through John McEntire’s sparkling production via the legendary Soma studio. The video for the track, however goofy, finds the band in true-to-form performance mode on a stage in front of wide open and expansive vista sceneries, furthering the Western thematic content the full record is already rife with. Thrill Jockey tells us the video was inspired by a Glen Campbell performance on the Smothers Brothers’ show (this one?). I guess I can see it, but that doesn’t really explain those mittens. Someone is going to have to explain the mittens to me. Guys… what’s the deal with the mittens?

Your Victorian Breasts

Set to be released in physical form on February 5, Your Victorian Breasts is the newest stellar compilation from Swiss/French label Three:Four Records, and you can now stream the whole thing on their SoundCloud. Featuring four sides and 20 tracks, this collection of previously unreleased and newly recorded music is overflowing with a variety of contemporary experimental music. Each tune is incredible, and each has a great back-story to it, but here are some of my faves:

An instrumental cover of Daniel Johnston’s destitute tune “Despair Came Knocking” played even sadder by Circuit des Yeux; a warm and wide-open demo called “Dust Bowl” from duo Date Palms; Josephine Foster teams up with husband Victor Herrero and a few others to form Mendrugo and record a leisurely and loving track “Estrella Fugaz;” a newly-formed outfit Syracuse Ear, consisting of noise-makers Chris Corsano, David Maranha, Manuel Mota, and Margarida Garcia, who create a suspenseful and rich piece called “Earth of Vitreous;” a classic Macedonian ballad reconstructed by Eric Chenaux… I could go on and on. You’re just gonna have to keep listening to it, and pre-order that record right now.